Chapter2
658 Words
The past doesn’t knock. It pulls down the entire door.
Eva stood outside the towering glass walls of Xavier Tower, gripping Elijah’s stuffed lion in one hand and her courage in the other.
The building seemed like Maxwell himself. Sleek, untouchable, ice-cold.
She hadn’t slept. How could she? After five years of silence, he had spoken twenty words that ripped her open again. Bring your secrets. Or don’t come at all.
She pressed the call button. The elevator opened a second later.
"A woman in all black greeted and welcomed her, “Miss Hart. Mr. Xavier is expecting you.”
Eva’s stomach rumbled.
She clutched her coat tighter and followed her silently, her heart echoing with the sound of her own footsteps. The elevator doors closed behind her, locking her into a future she couldn’t change.
Maxwell watched her from behind the glass.
She still looked like the girl who used to gift him cheap cupcakes on his birthday. Only now, she had shadows under her eyes and a steel thread in her spine that hadn’t been there before.
Good.
She should be scared. She should be ashamed.
But she didn’t look afraid.
And that unsettled him.
The elevator opened.
Eva stepped into the penthouse—white marble, black leather, silence.
Maxwell didn’t move. “Sit.”
She sat.
He didn’t offer water. Or food. Or mercy.
“Start talking.”
She opened the envelope. Medical reports. A photo of Elijah.
Maxwell didn’t flinch.
“I’m not here for sympathy,” she said quietly. “I’m here because our son is sick.” And I’m running out of time.
He slowly lifted the photo. Looked at the boy. The resemblance was unmistakable. The sharp cheekbones. Xavier eyes.
His throat tightened. But his voice stayed steel. “You’re claiming he’s mine?”
Eva nodded once. “He is.”
Maxwell didn’t speak for a long while . Then: “You let me think you left me. You let me grieve for you. And all this time, you were hiding my son?”
“No,” Eva said, shaking her head. They made me leave. I tried to come back—”
“Who are they?”
Eva’s voice cracked. “Your fiancée. Selene Voss. And her father.”
That made him blink.
“Selene told me… if I didn’t leave quietly, they would leak a video of your mother in the mental hospital. Right before your IPO. They said you would lose everything. And I didn’t want to be the reason.”
Maxwell stared at her.
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
“You should have come to me.”
“I was twenty-one, Maxwell! I was alone. Scared. I didn’t even have a lawyer—just fear and a pregnancy test.”
That hit. Hard.
He turned away.
“You think I would choose money over you?” he said, his voice lower now. More dangerous.
She stood, finally facing him without fear. “I think you already are.”
Silence crackled between them.
Maxwell turned slowly, his expression unreadable. “You’ll stay here. For the next thirty days.”
Eva blinked. “What?”
“You live here. With me. You want your son’s surgery fee paid for? Fine. But you’ll tell me everything you’ve done since the day you left. You’ll tell me every truth, every lie, and you’ll do it under my roof.”
Her breath seized.
“And if I say no?”
Maxwell’s voice lowered to a whisper. “Then pray someone else writes the check before your son runs out of time.”
Eva’s heart twisted.
Not for herself. But for Elijah.
“I’ll stay,” she whispered.
Maxwell nodded once. Cold. Final.
He walked toward the bedroom, pausing just before disappearing down the hall.
“Oh—and Eva?”
She turned.
“I don’t want your tears. I want your truth.”
The door clicked shut behind him.
- Writer
